Feature debut of Cho Eun-ji, who has been making a name in the Korean film industry as an actress of films like “The Villainess” and “Concubine” since the beginning of the millennium, “Perhaps Love” is a romantic comedy that tries to stray away from the norms through a number of different ways and an intensely episodic approach.
“Perhaps Love” is screening at Hong Kong Arts Centre, as part of the The Look of Love: Korean Romance Film Showcase program
Hyun is a famous novelist whose life is in shambles, despite the fact that the novel he wrote several years ago is still keeping him famous. The reasons are many. For starters, he seems unable to write a new one, to the despair of his best friend and publisher, Soon-mo. His second wife has left for the US along with her young daughter, which has led him to coming closer to his ex-wife, Mi-ae, who is dating, unbeknownst to him, Soon-mo. On a rather difficult night, the two come closer than they should, ending up having sex, but are discovered by their teenage son, Seong-gyeong, who cannot fathom what his parents are doing. The young boy experiences his adolescence rather hard, and the fact that he falls in love with the married woman next door, who is not sure on how to treat him, makes things even worse for him and his parents, who do not know how to deal with him. Lastly, a young writer named Yu-jin, meets Hyun by chance, starts attending the courses he teaches in the university, but soon also confesses his love for Hyun, complicating both their lives even more.
Cho Eun-ji has a great comedic cast under her instructions, and she manages to make the most of them in that regard. Ryu Seung-ryong's immaturity and awkwardness, Oh Na-ra's frantic mood changes and short temper as Mi-ae, Kim Hee-won's despair as Soon-mo and Sung Yoo-bin's multileveled frustration as Seong-gyeong create an explosively funny mix that carries the movie for the most of its duration. In that fashion, the interactions of the many protagonists are hilarious to watch a number of times, with Cho including enough episodes to allow them to do so. Even Mu Jin-sung as Yoo-jin, who is the main “advocate” of drama here, has its funny moments, even if in a more subtle fashion, in an overall approach that both highlights and benefits from the chemistry of the cast. The fighting scene inside the apartment is a great testament to the fact.
Through this approach, Cho also manages to present her comments about love, parenthood, mentorship, creativity, all of which seem to showcase how difficult life can be both in professional and social terms. At the same time, though, the changes the protagonists undergo during the many events they experience and the way they change them induce the movie with a rather optimistic note, which works quite well here, particularly through the whole persona of Hyun.
What does not work though, is the number of episodes, and to the point, of characters, here, which prolong the movie to almost two hours, and become somewhat tiresome after a point, even if individually, they still make sense. Particularly close to the end, when elements of (melo) drama come to the fore, Cho seems to lose control of her narrative, resulting in a movie that could definitely have ended much sooner. This also dulls the effort of editor Kim Tae-gyong, who has implemented a rather fast pace in order for all the episodes to fit in, but could have trimmed the movie, particularly close to the end.
Kim Tae-soo's cinematography is fittingly polished, with his framing being quite enjoyable on occasion (the fighting scene once more) without any particular exaltations.
Cho Eun-ji seems to have hit the reef of the first time directors, who frequently try to do as much as possible in the feature debut. However, the result is rather entertaining for the most part while she seems to have many interesting social comments to make, which deem the film hopeful.
